Q4 October – December 2016 SA Books

October – December 2016 :
New SA Titles

Prices and publication dates subject to change

Susan Booysen | Fees Must Fall | WUP 9781868149858 | R350 | October

#FeesMustFall, the student revolt that began in October 2015, was an uprising against lack of access to, and financial exclusion from, higher education in South Africa. More broadly, it radically questioned the socio-political dispensation resulting from the 1994 social pact between big business, the ruling elite and the liberation movement.

The 2015 revolt links to national and international youth struggles of the recent past and is informed by Black Consciousness politics and social movements of the international Left. Yet, its objectives are more complex than those of earlier struggles. The student movement has challenged the hierarchical, top-down leadership system of university management and it’s ‘double speak’ of professing to act in workers’ and students’ interests yet enforce a regressive system for control and governance. University managements, while one one level amenable to change, have also co-opted students into their ranks to create co-responsibility for the highly bureaucratised university financial aid that stand in the way of their social revolution.

This book maps the contours of student discontent a year after the start of the #FeesMustFall revolt. Student voices dissect coloniality, improper compromises by the founders of democratic South Africa, feminism, worker rights and meaningful education. In-depth assessments by prominent scholars reflect on the complexities of student activism, its impact on national and university governance, and offer provocative analyses of the power of the revolt.

From campus radio to host of South Africa’s biggest youth breakfast show to pioneering his own online hub, Gareth Cliff has always claimed the headlines with his brand of strong opinion and whiplash wit. He has been suspended from the airwaves or crucified by his critics more times than he can remember – whether for interviewing himself as Jesus or comparing Shaka Zulu to Cecil John Rhodes.

Most recently, Cliff was fired by M-Net as one of the Idols judges after facing accusations of racism over the Penny Sparrow incident. He fought back, employing the services of the EFF’s Dali Mpofu, and was reinstated.
In Cliffhanger, South Africa’s controversial shock jock goes behind the scenes to give you a first-hand account of the highs and lows of the past two decades.

In this magnificent work of narrative history Lawrence James investigates how, within the space of a hundred years, Europe coerced Africa into becoming subordinate to an emerging modern world. Laced with the experiences of participants and onlookers, Empires in the Sun introduces the men and women – the high-minded, philanthropic, unscrupulous and insane – who stamped their wills indelibly upon the continent.

Between 1830 and 1945, Britain, France, Belgium, Germany, Portugal, Italy and the United States exported their languages, laws, cultures, religions, scientific knowledge and economic systems to Africa. Justifying occupation as emancipation from slavery and savagery, they imposed administrations they argued would bring stability and peace to a continent they regarded as a lacuna of civilisation.

But by 1945 a transformed Africa was preparing to take charge of its own affairs, beginning a process of decolonisation that would take a mere twenty or so years. In the wake of the damage wrought by its colonial powers, Africa’s new masters were left to choose a path of peace and order, or to answer force with force.

Empires of the Sun is a compelling account of a vast system of exploitation that radically changed the course of world history. Within this story of the capture and recapture of Africa, James also pauses to ask: what did not happen and why?

After 20 years of freedom in South Africa we have to ask ourselves difficult questions: are we willing to perpetuate a lie, search for facts or think wishfully? Freedom has been enabled by apartheid’s end, but at the same time some of apartheid’s key institutions and social relations are reproduced under the guise of ‘democracy’.

This collection of essays acknowledges the enormous expectations placed on the shoulders of the South African revolution to produce an alternative political regime in response to apartheid and global neo-liberalism. It does not lament the inability of South Africa’s democracy to provide deeper freedoms, or suggest that since it hasn’t this is some form of betrayal. Freedom is made possible and/or limited by local political choices, contemporary global conditions and the complexities of social change. This book explores the multiplicity of spaces within which the dynamics of social change unfold, and the complex ways in which power is produced and reproduced. In this way, it seeks to understand the often non-linear practices through which alternative possibilities emerge, the lengthy and often indirect ways in which new communities are imagined and new solidarities are built. In this sense, this book is not a collection of hope or despair. Nor is it a book that seeks to situate itself between these two poles. Instead it aims to read the present historically, critically and politically, and to offer insights into the ongoing, iterative and often messy struggles for freedom.

Nelson Mandela is dead and in South Africa his dream of a rainbow nation is fading. Twenty-two years after the fall of apartheid, a group of white Afrikaners have sequestered themselves off from this unpredictable country, fearing that their language, culture, and eventually their entire people, may soon become extinct. Living on edge in an ever-changing nation, many have retreated to the breakaway republic of Orania, where they work to construct a utopia for white Africans. Within the safety of their laager – a homeland with its own flag and currency – they can, once again, dictate the rules. Weaving between the past and the present, Into the Laager traces the war for the control of South Africa, its people and its history, over a series of December 16ths – from the Battle of Blood River in 1838 to its annual commemoration. And, in so doing, takes us back to the origin of these fears: the years of nationalism and social engineering behind this modern struggle for identity and relevancy. Along the way, Norman asks the difficult questions – ones which are as relevant to today’s South Africa as they were in 1838: How do people react when they believe their cultural identity is under threat? How far are we prepared to go to survive as a people?

First published in 1916, Sol Plaatje’s Native Life in South Africa was written by one of the South Africa’s most talented early 20th-century black leaders and journalists. Plaatje’s pioneering book arose out of an early African National Congress campaign to protest against the discriminatory 1913 Natives Land Act. Native Life vividly narrates Plaatje’s investigative journeying into South Africa’s rural heartlands to report on the effects of the Act and his involvement in the deputation to the British imperial government. At the same time it tells the bigger story of the assault on black rights and opportunities in the newly consolidated Union of South Africa – and the resistance to it.

Originally published in war-time London, but about South Africa and its place in the world, Native Life travelled far and wide, being distributed in the United States under the auspices of prominent African-American W E B Du Bois. South African editions were to follow only in the late apartheid period and beyond.

The aim of this multi-authored volume is to shed new light on how and why Native Life came into being at a critical historical juncture, and to reflect on how it can be read in relation to South Africa’s heightened challenges today. Crucial areas that come under the spotlight in this collection include land, race, history, mobility, belonging, war, the press, law, literature, language, gender, politics, and the state.

Celebrating Gardens in Style takes a look at garden styles over time. Four major styles, Formal, Landscape, Cottage and Naturalistic gardens are featured, tracing their origins and development, as well as suggested plantings for each style. This beautifully illustrated book will inspire enthusiastic gardeners.

Just who is Radovan Krejcir? Known as “Baas John” to his underlings, he arrived in South Africa in 2007 under a false
passport. He was a fugitive, a powerful Czech multimillionaire, who escaped from prison on fraud charges and fled to the good life in the Seychelles. But a bid by the Czech Republic to have him extradited saw Krejcir coming to South Africa. He was arrested at the airport, but an alleged bribe kept him in the country. Within a few years Krejcir had amassed great wealth and his name began being associated with underworld gang members such as Cyril Beeka and Lolly Jackson. It was the murder of Lolly Jackson that brought Krejcir’s name into the limelight and revealed his dealing with crime intelligence boss Joey Mabasa and small time criminal George Louka.

Over the next three years 10 more deaths took place, each one more dramatic than the next. He was also the victim of a
bizarre James Bond style shoot out. His business Moneypoint exploded when a bomb left inside a bag blew up, killing two associates. Soon afterward Krejcir was arrested, but in true Krejcir fashion even a jail cell could not hold him down. Police foiled a plan to murder top cop Colonel Nkosana Ximba and forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan and to stop numerous escape attempts.

He has been found guilty and sentenced for kidnapping, attempted murder and attempted drug possession. He also
faces charges for the murder of Sam Issa, the conspiracy to murder investigators and the murder of Phumlani Ncube, a
hit man-turned informant. But KREJCIR reveals why we have not heard the last of the worst crime boss South Africa has
ever seen.

A wide-ranging exploration of South Africa’s Mother City, Scenic Cape Town is both strikingly visual and full of detail. With photographs by Mark Skinner and text by Sean Fraser, the book pays tribute to the different kinds of beauty Cape Town has on offer – its cultural heritage, historical charm and natural splendour.

From the brightly-coloured houses of the Malay Quarter and the bustle of Green Point market, to the nature reserve at Cape Point and the beaches of Camps Bay and Clifton, Scenic Cape Town presents the city in all its magnificence.

Now in its second edition, this classic coffee-table book has been is revised and updated to include forty per cent new images.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the NSRI, here is a collection of daring rescues filled with drama and danger. From burning ships to shark attacks, sinking trawlers to hallucinating fishermen, these are the stories of man’s constant battle with some of the most dangerous waters on earth. But there is one story in particular that gave rise to the creation of the NSRI…

On 12 April 1966, four fishing boats put out to sea from Stilbaai on South Africa’s southern coast. Soon they were all pulling in fish as fast as they could bait their hooks, and the boats were settling lower in the water. Shortly before sunset, skipper Gerhard Dreyer saw clouds building on the horizon. But the fishing was too good and they ignored the signs. Later that night a gale force wind slammed into them. ‘I told the men to throw everything overboard,’ Gerhard remembers. An hour before midnight, Gerhard headed for deeper water to try and ride out the swells. As dawn broke, they saw for the first time the true extent of the night’s damage: among the flotsam, one man in a lifebuoy. That man was the only crewman from the other three boats to survive the terrible storm. Seventeen men died that night.

Simonstown schoolteacher Patti Price was horrified when she read the news. She began a media campaign and appealed to the president of the Society of Master Mariners. As a direct result of her efforts, the South African Inshore Rescue Service was founded in August 1966 (renamed the National Sea Rescue Institute in 1967).